My holiday season is not complete without baking copious amounts of baked goods for friends and family. I just love the sweet scents that swirl around my kitchen and the warmth that comes from the oven. One of my favorite things to bake around the holidays are cookies because they are easy to share. I bake enough to give to my neighbors and some of my favorite farmers at the farmers market. Even when I’m visiting my family in England, I will bake cookies at my in-law’s’ house. I usually find a recipe from a British cooking magazine and enlist my mother-in-law’s assistance in the kitchen. We make a great team! After we bake the cookies, we’ll share them amongst family and friends. It is a wonderful feeling to be able to share some holiday cheer through cookies! This year, I am excited to partner with Nielsen-Massey Vanillas in their first #BaketoShare campaign to spread holiday joy through baking. While researching holiday trends, Nielsen-Massey Vanillas surveyed 1,000 Americans and found that Gen-Xers and Millennials are most likely to bake during the holidays to spend time with loved ones. The insights that Nielsen-Massey Vanillas gathered from their research led them to launch the #BaketoShare campaign.
BLACK SESAME AND ALMOND COOKIES
To inspire you to #BaketoShare this holiday season, I developed this black sesame and almond cookie recipe. The cookies are a twist on one of my favorite cookies from childhood, Chinese almond cookies. Instead of a plain almond cookie, I combine almond cookie and black sesame cookie dough bases to make a simple and fun design. The design for these black sesame and almond cookies is based on a technique I learned from my friend Irvin Lin’s dessert cookbook, Marble, Swirled and Layered. For each cookie, you combine small pieces of almond and black sesame cookie dough and roll them together into a ball. Then, you flatten the dough slightly and cut the dough in half. The cut that you make is perpendicular to the dividing line between the almond and black sesame doughs. Finally, flip one half of the cookie over and press the 2 halves together again. You should now have a design that looks slightly checkered. It is a simple but effective way to make the cookies visually appealing. To flavor the almond cookie base, I used Nielsen-Massey’s Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract and Pure Almond Extract. The vanilla is a great all-purpose extract that brings out the sweetness of the cookies. The Pure Almond Extract is made from pure oil of bitter almonds and it gives the almond cookie base a light nutty flavor. For the black sesame cookie dough, I used only the Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract. That way, you can taste the difference in flavors between the almond cookie and black sesame cookie bases. I also used Dutch-process cocoa powder to give the black sesame cookie dough better color contrast. Ground black sesame looks peppery and pale grey when incorporated into baked goods. Mixing in the Dutch-process cocoa makes the color of the dough darker and evenly distributed.
NIELSEN-MASSEY VANILLAS HOLIDAY FLAVORS BUNDLE
MORE DESSERT RECIPES
Pineapple Buns (Bolo Bao)Easy Sesame CandyGluten-Free Chinese Almond Cookies
WATCH HOW TO MAKE BLACK SESAME & ALMOND COOKIES
Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Nielsen-Massey Vanillas. You can visit their website for more recipe inspiration or follow them on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, or Twitter.
